Wednesday, June 25, 2014

GREEN DRAKE HATCH ON THE UPPER PINE CREEK 2014

This year the green drakes had some tough conditions to deal with. It seemed to rain every other day in late may and early June. These really wet/cool conditions seemed to put a hold on the hatch and keep the numbers of flies down as I did not see the heavy clouds of flies that I have in past years. Plus a flood in mid may did not help matters at all. Then the water went up to over 9 ft down creek at the cedar run gauge and camper trailers on the bank at the camp had to be moved for fear of being washed away.But on Tues the 10th of June the fish finally came up and ate these flies.
I got out early at 6.00 am and right away caught a 3 lb palomino trout on a size 4 long shank green drake coffin fly pattern tied down to 3x. When fishing these or other large mayflies you should tie down to heavier tippet so they wont spin when cast., and don't let anyone tell you "its too heavy" "The trout will see it"  The trout don't care! How do I know? Because I have been using heavy tippet on large flies for 30 years and have caught more trout over 20 inches then almost everyone I know.

Fishing was great! It was as if all the big trout decided to feed on top that day as anywhere I cast I not only hooked a trout but half of them were over 2 lbs. after one hour in the camps lower pool I went up to the next one and caught more fish, then it occurred to me to go up to the big flat above the camp and fish there as it had been heavily stocked with fish, many over 3 lbs. There were not too many green drakes in the air but if I cast my fly on the water I would get a strike and almost all strikes were a hook up. After catching and releasing many more trout from 1 to 3 lbs I hooked a palomino trout that had to go over 5 lbs and 24 inches. This trout when hooked immediately ran to its right and jumped out of the creek turning upside down and at the same time was kicking its tail so fast it sounded like a Pheasants wing, the trout then hit the water and took off upstream so fast pulling the fly out as it swam away at maybe 20 miles per hour,...ZOOM! off it went. Then after re tying  my fly as you should after any action with big fish I hooked a 3 lb male brook trout that had to go 18 inches after releasing him I ran back to the camper to make a sandwich and eat it in record time and went back to the lower pool where I saw another 24 inch palomino trout feeding on the big coffin flies across the pool so I cast three to four times and hooked her. This tout was also about 4 and a half pounds and a solid 24 inches long I played her to my side of the creek and had my iphone videoing the whole fight as I did a few of the other fish. running any camera and fighting a fish at the same time is not easy so the video looks like the ones you see on tv about UFO,S But at least I got it on video.

All in all I caught over 20 trout that day and half were over 2 lbs A few over 3 lbs and two over 5 lbs I figure I caught and released 45lbs of trout that day,.ALL FISH on the same pattern all by 4 pm.                     I then celebrated with a great meal and a great many beers in a very , very hearty manner!

This is the stuff that keeps me going through the rest of the year and on those cold winter days, knowing the drakes will come again.